Kurt Vile

Welcome to 5-10-15-20, where we talk to artists about the music they loved at five-year interval points in their lives. Maybe we'll get a detailed roadmap of how their tastes and passions helped make them who they are. Maybe we'll just learn that they really liked hearing the "Taz-Mania" theme song over and over when they were kids. Either way, it'll be fun.

For this edition, we spoke with Philadelphia indie rocker Kurt Vile, 29.

I was into music even then, but my dad played the records. There's one record in particular. It's Cajun music. There's this song on there called "Bully of the Bayou", which is amazing. My whole family loved it. I used to think that was John Denver because my dad used to play some John Denver that I like. But it was really Rusty and Doug Kershaw.

It's just real good guitar, just real good Cajun music. It had that groove: that bluesy guitar, these crazy Cajun weirdo harmonies, funny lyrics. The delivery is hilarious. The story behind it is just really funny. It's this guy who could whip everybody in the bayou. Then there was this person Big Mamou-- I think it's a girl-- and she finally beat him. He could whip everyone with one hand tied, and then finally somebody beat him up. [Laughs]

That's a weird time for kids and music. You're in elementary school, and you kind of reject your dad's music by that point. We used to listen to top 40 radio. Me and my friend used to tape stuff off the radio. One kind of normal song was "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys; I think that was around that time. But there was also C+C Music Factory and all that kind of stuff. And there was also that [Escape Club] song "Wild, Wild West". If I heard that song, I probably would still crank it. My cousin used to make fun of me for liking stuff like C+C Music Factory. I didn't have any tapes; I just liked their song on the radio. We liked that because that was what we had access to.

My cousin was starting to get into U2 and stuff like that, and I used to pretend to like that. I still liked it for a while. We used to watch Rattle and Hum, the movie, but I watched that recently and got squeamish because some of it is just so corny and the outfits are so weird.

You know what we fucking loved so much, too? "She Drives Me Crazy" by the Fine Young Cannibals. I still like that song. It's hilarious. It's definitely better than "Wild, Wild West." I think "She Drives Me Crazy" is hilarious and good. I remember I saw them on "Saturday Night Live". I think it was that song where [Roland Gift] did a cartwheel over to the keyboard. And then he did a solo! [Laughs]

I guess that's the indie rock era. Around '93, the radio started playing "Loser" by Beck and "Cut Your Hair" by Pavement, and then I got way into Pavement. That was kind of a gateway drug into indie rock. I got all their B-sides, and I got that Hey Drag City comp, so I got into all those Drag City bands. And I remember Lollapalooza '95, with Beck and Sonic Youth and Pavement. I was listening to all that stuff. Actually, when I went to Lollapalooza I didn't know Sonic Youth's music so much. But then, right after, I got Washing Machine. "The Diamond Sea" is one of the best songs. And Pavement's Crooked Rain, the whole record. That was all my favorite shit.

Malkmus goes after Stone Temple Pilots and Smashing Pumpkins on "Range Life". I never really liked Stone Temple Pilots. I did love Smashing Pumpkins, but Pavement converted me. I know Billy Corgan was really bitchy about that. He's like, "Hey, people don't wake up in the morning singing Pavement songs. I give you the blood, sweat, and tears." But I feel quite opposite, so fuck Billy Corgan. [Laughs]

When I was 20, I moved up to Boston with my girlfriend, who's now my wife. She went to grad school, and I met a bunch of cool friends there. When I first got there, I was listening heavily to the Beatles and Syd Barrett. But my friends turned me on to stuff like Brian Eno and John Fahey, so I got this John Fahey CD around that time. It's called Days Have Gone By.

I can't choose between two of these songs here. They're just so beautiful. "Impressions of Susan" is more abstractly pop. It's really catchy folk, beautiful and dynamic. And "My Shepherd Will Supply My Needs" is really long and so beautiful and plodding. It has different movements, but at the very end he just strums out these chords. It's just kind of like a hymn, and it goes on for a while. He just takes his time. It almost sounds like chords to a church organ, but it's just way better because it's from his guitar and you just know he means every note.

I was getting into Animal Collective and Ariel Pink. I really did listen to Ariel Pink so much around then. Friends of mine from Boston, Rob and Greg, were in his first touring band. Greg does this thing called Gary War, and Rob does this thing called Sore Arrows. But they moved out to L.A., and they met Ariel and put out a CD-R comp called Light Dead Sea. There's a song by Ariel on there called "Omen." So that was the first thing I heard, and I thought it was cool, but it didn't fully grab me.

Then Ariel came to Philly and I jammed with them onstage, but Ariel walked off the stage because the sound was so bad. So then I followed them up to New York. They played Tonic. I was way into pedals and synthesizers then. I still am, even though I play more guitar these days; I have a ton of gear. But I drove up there with full intention to play, hoping they would let me jam, and I brought my Korg K2 synthesizer and these Lovetone pedals I had. I let everybody use some stuff. And they let me play on "The Ballad of Bobby Pyn", which is off of Doldrums. We were pretty out of our minds, and it was just so crazy. I had never played in front of that many people. It was probably about a couple hundred, but still. I was always making my own music, but I had never played to a crowd that big. It was real free and awesome.

After they left, Rob gave me a copy of the Doldrums LP, and I just bought them all and was listening to them all the time. It's hard to say a number one Ariel Pink song, but "Immune to Emotion" is just super pop.

I still know Ariel. Every time he comes through and I see him, I say hi. I saw him in Big Sur. We didn't get to talk as much. I think he was in a fight with his bandmates or something. But usually he's really nice, and I always think he's really cool. I like his music, at least.